Sunu Chandy

Senior Advisor

Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a Senior Advisor with Democracy Forward.

In this role, she advocates for civil rights protections, and works alongside partner organizations, including LGBTQIA+ communities, to help build a nation that does right by all of us. Sunu is also the author of an award-winning collection of poems, My Dear Comrades. Before starting at Democracy Forward in September 2023, she served as the Legal Director of the National Women’s Law Center for six years. She led the Center’s litigation efforts, provided guidance for the Center’s policy positions towards greater workplace justice, and led their LGBTQIA+ rights work. She provided Congressional testimony in support of the Equality Act, a bill that would strengthen and clarify civil rights protections, and provided testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Federal Sector and #metoo. Until August 2017, Sunu served as the Deputy Director for the Civil Rights Division with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and before that, Sunu was the General Counsel of the DC Office of Human Rights (OHR). Previously, Sunu was a federal litigator with the U.S. Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for 15 years. At EEOC, Sunu also led several outreach and training initiatives including as a member of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAPPI) Regional Working Group. Sunu began her legal career as a law firm associate representing unions and individual workers in New York City at Gladstein, Reif and Megginniss, LLP. Sunu earned her B.A. in Peace and Global Studies/Women’s Studies from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, and her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Queens College/The City University of New York. Sunu serves on the board of directors for the Transgender Law Center, and has been included as one the Washington Blade’s Queer Women of Washington and one of Go Magazine’s 100 Women We Love.